The New Republic

The article's title question goes unanswered. Yes, liberals do dominate political satire (including satire of liberals). But why?

- dsimon

May 5, 2011 at 9:43am

Liberals also dominate most parts of academia. i don't think it was always so- either one. William F. Buckley was quite a wit. Both comedy and academia depend on at least some commitment to see the world as it exists. (and, no, it's not only the right that has this problem, they're just the most popular right now. The far left tends to be pretty unfunny and gets sent up regularly on the Daily Show.)

- miceelf

May 5, 2011 at 9:57am

Because liberals use satire to as a way for the powerless to take on the powerful, whereas conservatives use satire as a way for the powerful to take on the powerless. Sort of loses it's humor. Ever listened to Limbaugh?

- rayward

May 5, 2011 at 10:05am

Limbaugh does satire but rarely. He does mockery quite well ... he mocks the weak, the powerless, the non-male, the non-straight, the non-white, the non-Christian (oddly, he doesn't mock the non-fat and the non-drug-addicted). The conservatives I've met (and living in Texas, I do meet a lot of them, though Austin does shield you some ...) go for invective or mockery. Satire, IMO, requires a degree of detachment (and the ability to be self-critical) which I don't see much among conservatives.

- NR409654

May 5, 2011 at 10:24am

Good satire is based on accurate observation of reality. 'Nuff said.

- santoast

May 5, 2011 at 10:28am

Satire can be a hard thing to pin down. It's humor but also has a serious aspect of developing a deeper understanding of some issue or problem. I think SNL's stuff is parody or spoof, but not satire. Making fun of politicians' speech patterns and exaggerating their mannerisms may be funny for the moment for some, but it lacks insight. I think satire involves pointing out the absurdity of how some people seem to be addressing the issue at hand, not just making fun of them, which is why mere mockery fails as satire. Given the subject, that paragraph was way too serious.

- dsimon

May 5, 2011 at 10:45am

Liberals dominate political satire because liberals are smarter and smarter people are much more likely to be funny. Stupid people aren't even sure when to laugh, much less capable of telling a decent joke. There are some on the right who have a sense of humor, such as Rush Limbaugh, but they're much more likely to be unfunny drones who just read whatever talking points the RNC faxes over that morning. Even Limbaugh, who does have a nasty and almost subversive sense of humor, can't sustain it for long the way Stephen Colbert does. The left seems to attract comedians who care about politics. The best the right can do is attract one or two people who care about politics and happen to be funny from time to time. But most right-wing media types are just dull hacks who substitute decibels for cleverness. Think Sean Hannity -- he's Limbaugh without the wit.

- DC Spence

May 5, 2011 at 10:57am

Another reason liberals are good at satire and conservatives aren't is that liberals can, and do, laugh at themselves. If you saw a dozen Daily Show segments featuring Hillary or, say, John Kerry, at least 11, and maybe all 12, would be making fun of them. (The same is true for the other liberals targeted by the show, including Obama.) The primary question Daily Show writers ask about any sketch is "Is it funny?" If so, it goes in the show. The identity of the target is mostly irrelevant, except that I would imagine the the writers have a sort of quota for people like Beck and Palin who could fill a month's worth of airtime all by themselves. Self-identified conservatives can't laugh at themselves, primarily because resisting all forms of criticism from liberals, legitimate or not, is a large part of what they believe they were put on earth to do. Also, to joke about the more risible characters, like Palin and Beck, is to concede too much of the "liberal" narrative against them. So, liberals have a field day making fun of Biden's gaffes and somewhat goofy persona (the Onion is hilarious here), and make dedicated public servants like Hillary and Kerry squirm in their seats, because it's funny and doesn't override their more positive qualities. But, if you make fun of Palin for not knowing much about current events and political issues, you're pretty much saying that she's not qualified to hold any high office, and that liberal criticism in that regard is valid, rather than being evidence of liberal hatred of all the decent things Sarah stands for. The other reason conservative humor is not funny is because liberals make fun of themselves. For example, a conservative sketch portraying Kerry as a pompous windbag derives a big part of its humor for conservatives from being "politically incorrect": "See, we have the guts to go where liberals won't - they'll be devastated when they see what we've done to their great hero." But, liberals have made plenty of jokes about Kerry's pomposity, so they're not taboo at all. And, since they've made dozens of jokes along those lines, it's hard for conservatives to find a fresh way to make the point. As far as I'm aware, there are no prominent liberal humorists who limit their comedy to making fun of conservatives. A "liberal comedian" is someone who makes fun of liberals and says things that make conservatives uncomfortable. (In the same way, the "liberal press" is the press that criticizes liberals and conservatives.) But, in order for conservative humor to be classified as "conservative humor" it by definition has to have a one-sided perspective. A one-sided perspective is something comedians make fun of; it cannot be the basis for very much humor of the "laughing with" variety.

- Geoff G

May 5, 2011 at 11:23am

Perhaps because the right is more target rich? Romney is just a ridiculous, easily mocked character. There's the running from his record, the sick dog lashed to the roof, the squirrel/varmint huntin' and his press manager's non-ironic attempt to make Romney just a regular guy by noting that the Mittster uses a beat-up Oldsmobile to run errands at his Lake Winnipesaukee lakefront home. He's so fake, so plastic, and tries to be so conservative-earnest, so eager to please the wingers that he sets himself up every time he appears in the news. And Romney's one of the saner ones on the right

- dubyadoubte

May 5, 2011 at 12:30pm

Oh please, DC. Go into the engineering department at MIT and see how much good humor you find there.

- liberalref

May 5, 2011 at 12:59pm

The last seriously funny conservative was H. L. Mencken. P. J. O'Rourke is just an updated version. It is not a surprise that no one found Mencken quite as funny once the Great Depression got underway or that O'Rourke can't get a laugh anymore. Both Mencken and O'Rourke were keen observers (just read O'Rourke's Holidays in Hell). But the left has moved on, the economy has tanked, and the right, having abandoned any kind of empiricism, is reduced to Dennis Miller. Why do you think they have all those Weekly Standard hippie cartoons Chait has complained about? Because that was the last time you could actually see the acting out of left wing silliness. That there in fact is no one much like that anymore means that the right is reduced to mocking stereotypes that no longer exist.

- timteeter

May 5, 2011 at 1:14pm

saying that intelligence is a prerequisite to good sense of humor and saying that intelligence inevitably leads to a good sense of humor are two very different things.

- miceelf

May 5, 2011 at 2:27pm

Thoughtful analysis, Geoff G. For conservatives today (not historically, as has been mentioned), it's 100% politicking and ideology 100% of the time, purposely allowing no opportunity for analysis of policy or reflection on outcomes. No room for true satire, or anything beyond mockery of the other side (as has been mentioned).

- shewchuk

May 5, 2011 at 3:35pm

Post of the day to you, tim. Excellent.

- liberalref

May 5, 2011 at 9:58pm